Social filmmaking is an emerging field of social media used to produce documentaries. It is a meaningful way of life through which a community tells a compelling story to other non-community members.want to know more?

Recent Articles that might be of interest:

Pixar – Storytelling Secrets for the Documentarian

Story telling is vital component of any successful movie making venture, something often overlooked by the modern documentarian. For one reason or another, documentary story tellers have tried over 13 different genres, most leading to less than viable commercial success. But without exception, the most powerful and compelling story telling format is rooted in the early works of Aristotle – Dramatic Structure and the one company that best exemplifies this format is Pixar.

Social filmmaking connects different communities through film-based story telling. In social computing terms, the film is the media and its context is what makes it sharable, thus being a type of social media. As such, social filmmaking becomes the application of social computing technologies to the documentary filmmaking workflow.

All story telling processes, documentary or otherwise, are not created equal. The social filmmaking process, being just one type of story telling approach, tends to have Several distinctive characteristics that separate it from other techniques. Some key characteristics to think about are:

At some point int the post production process, the Social Filmmaker will need to start editing and compositing. One of the challenges this phase is the software; more precisely, the cost of video editing packages like FCP and Adobe. While these post systems are top of the line, their top line prices and limited support for social computing (more so for FCP) can often be a barrier to most productions, so we need to look for alternatives.

FIlmmaking is enjoyably hard enough, let along when you are trying to capture that unexpected moment. That instant laugh, cry, or even load bang that causes all of us to turn in anticipation is often missed in the moment. It is only when we reach for the camera, turn it on, position, focus, and start to shoot that we begin to capture these fleeting events in retrospect. Well, not any more.

As expected, The Science of Blogging was a great event and lived up to its “science” expectation. The discussion was loaded with insights and implications, all supported with data. Just the kind of rational thought process that more presenters (analysts, researcher,etc.) need to include in their work.

“If you want to tell the untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got to find a language. Which goes for film as well as prose, for documentary as well as autobiography. Use the wrong language, and you're dumb and blind.”

Salman Rushdie

Social Documentary Film Making In Motion

We are dedicated to discovering, making, and distributing best of class documentary films covering socially-oriented topics of the day. The human condition, as expressed through commercial-grade film production, is one of the most least understood and valued experience in our society. Through the documentary process, Live the Dream Films can show that the things that bind us together as a society and people are stronger than the things that tear us apart.

SYNOPSIS of Bombay Beach: A documentary-record-cum-drama with dreamlike musical elements describing a small community on the fringes of the lost American dream, and the dreamers who populate its surreal and poetic landscape.

Bombay Beach is one of the poorest communities in southern California located on the shores of the Salton Sea, a man-made sea stranded in the middle of the Colorado desert that was once a beautiful vacation destination for the privileged and is now a pool of dead fish.

​Film Quote:"It takes a community to raise a child. But you have to remember, even the some of the best raised children can turn bad."

Film director Alma Har'el tells the story of three protagonists. The trials of Benny Parrish, a young boy diagnosed with bipolar disorder whose troubled soul and vivid imagination create both suffering and joy for him and his complex and loving family.

The story of CeeJay Thompson, a black teenager and aspiring football player who has taken refuge in Bombay Beach hoping to avoid the same fate of his cousin who was murdered by a gang of youths in Los Angeles; and that of Red, an ancient survivor, once an oil field worker, living on the fumes of whiskey, cigarettes and an irrepressible love of life.

Together these portraits form a triptych of manhood in its various ages and guises, in a gently hypnotic style that questions whether they are a product of their world or if their world is a construct of their own imaginations. The narratives are interspersed with choreographed sequences in which the protagonists dance -- to music specially composed for the film by Zach Condon of the band Beirut and songs by Bob Dylan.

Ideas are a funny thing - the more they sit inside the head, the more they rot. In order for an idea to become real, it is important to get it out of the head and into reality.

You can help get any of these ideas out of our heads and into reality by making a secure donation today via PayPal. Any contribution amount helps and all funds go to developing the Social Films program. more info...

I Am Alive Tube

A homeless person battles against man’s callus nature in order to be seen in an otherwise invisible world.

A convicted felon struggles the rest of his life over the simple decision made in a split second. While they can never go back, can a few minutes of their insights save others going forward from a similar fate?

An aging fleet of coastal lobstermen struggle to find relevance in a modern world of high stakes trawling. While their tall tales are the stories that history is based on, can we find value in the lessons learned from their past?